His hair probably turned white because he was like "Holy shit this intro SUCKS! What the fuck am I doing in this illogical and pointless non-canon intro when I could be out NOT being used to my potential by Vogel!"
I kid of course...sort of...not really..
Seriously though I have no idea what made him suddenly turn old again. Then again most of the intro makes no sense anyway so...

Maybe since everyone got back to life he ran out of souls to eat and became old again! LOL!

Jesus how did you not know this.
Shang Tsung maintains his youth from eating souls, when he is defeated or mortaly wounded Etc, his age comes back to him.

how come he didn't deage in the deception intro then...cause quan chi knocked him the hell out then too.
i think it's more a case of "hey guys you know what'd be cool...if we made shang old."

Yah I'm guessing it's because he's on the edge of defeat...
Unless dealing with zombie kang, then seeing mammoth blaze was enough to scare the souls right out his arse!
Those are two spooky shits!

Imo either...
1. Shang was ina real hooked situation literally. He must have conserved as much of himself as possible, as he was tied up right before a near godly fire elemental.
2. the hooks were just logged on his shoulders keybones. Nowhere near fatal, but plenty of pain. Must have been Blaze's awesome power that fa-ded Shang Tsungs youth in comparison.

Also in the intro he was using the most power I've ever seen him use.
I mean he was ripping threw people left right and center, making big ass explosions... I suppose the insanity the whole pyramid thing caused makes every warrior tap into the depts of their power, instead of playing it smart and spreading it out.

The truth (pun intended) is that Vogel replaced Tobias in the position of main storyteller, but not in the position of "co-creator", reason why since MKDA Boon is the only "boss", and sometimes makes good things (like MKDA storyline), but he perfectly can "fuck" the storyline (the comeback of Goro & Shao Kahn in MKD/U, or the fan-fest in MKAr) without the impediment of Vogel...
This is a ¿fictional? conversation between Boon and Vogel:
Few months ago...
-Vogel: I have a load of work, I have to fix every storyline to make a great story for Armageddon...
-Boon: Don't worry John, the storyline is easy, all the fighters will run towards the pyramid to beat Blaze, the main boss, and the char's ending will be non-canon, like old times...
-Vogel: But this screw all the storyline Ed!
-Boon: Pfff... and who cares about the storylines in fighting games?
-Vogel: The true fans!
-Boon: When the true fans make more money than the n00bz, the coherence in the storyline will be my main objective...
-Vogel: But this isn't fair!
-Boon: Well... who's my bitch?
-Vogel: ........
-Boon: Geez... who's my bitch?
-Vogel: I'm your bitch...
-Boon: Yes. Now go to the characters development to help with the only one Chameleon...
-Vogel: Shit... damn mortgage...

Haha, I second that.

I think all energy within a certain radius of Blaze was sucked up and Shang Tsung happened to be on the very edge of that radius.

You people are really fucking ungreatful. Every time I come on this forum, I see someone talking about how Ed Boon is a dumbass or he fucked up the game or some shit like that. But he has given all you people shit that you wanted over the years.
For this game, everyone wanted every fighter in it, so now they are in it. Everyone wanted a KAF mode, and now it's there.
For Deception, people wanted Hara-Kiris in it, and he gave it to us, as well as many characters that we haven't seen in a while.
All he does is make these games for the fans, and all you people do is bitch and fucking complain. Grow the fuck up and realize when someone is doing something solely to make you fucking happy.

But you've got to admit that was funny. I have great respect for Boon, and yet, I fell out of my chair laughing.

1: Shang Tsung just hasn't been taking enough soul. When he fights Liu, he just about runs out.
2: Blaze is absorbing massive amounts of power from the surrounding area and strips Shang Tsung of his captured souls.
3: What Shin said.

I assumed his metamorphosis was from Lui's hooks. I mean, his transformation takes place the instant the hooks go into his traps.
Regarding the intro... don't get me wrong, there were some nice touches here and there and the overall quality was nice, but the whole concept is ridiculous. Seeing all the "bad guys" and "good guys" running at each other like a retarded stampede makes absolutely, positively NO SENSE.
I understand that given the goals they had for the intro, this was the best solution they could come up with. But when the solution compromises the integrity and continuity of almost every character, it may be time to consider a completely new direction.